eastbound | audio | username: raven master

( Some might recognise the calm, glacial voice. Others might despise it. ) Good afternoon. For those whose acquaintance I have failed to make already: I am the Merchant.

It seems several of you have misunderstood your remit. You were sent to the ruins of Ellethia to grasp the stakes of our enterprise, and why your role in ensuring there is no repetition of this catastrophe is critical. You were assigned in hopes that next you are told those who willingly inflict the dead upon innocents deserve retaliation, you will heed your instruction.

Instead, you have opted to meddle. It is in your natures. I have come to accept it. But there are lines that should not be crossed — ones you have trampled with impunity.

( A pause, while he collects himself. ) Our associate Enam informs me that you have taken it upon yourselves to terminate the lives of the... sleeping tower dwellers. without cause, remit or invitation. Perhaps slaughter is commonplace in your homelands. I have clearly miscalculated your appetite for bloodshed.

No matter. You have killed good men and women. Ensure that you dispose of their bodies at sea, before the cycles of the land inevitably wake them. I trust, seeing as you had no qualms in ending their lives, you will be equal to the task of disposing them.

I expect our friend Zenobius will now have to seek out an alternative to his life's work. A pity.

( Silence, as if the Merchant might have neglected to end his communication. When he speaks, it's deeper, forcibly collected: ) Should that happen, seek out stored supplies, forage and maintain the wells. Your ship arrives within days. I bid you well on the next leg of your journey.

( ooc: in response to Moiraine, Eleven and Yennefer's decision to euthanise the Sleepers: on 11 February, characters may notice Zenobius is no where to be found. Characters can find him in a deep sleep akin to that of the Sleepers, at the bottom of one of the semi-dried wells previously inspected by Kaneki and John Connor.

Over 11-13 February, characters may notice the garden legumes and food supplies stop replenishing. They may have to leave the lighthouse to hunt for their sustenance. Water can still be procured from wells.

The voices and echoes that haunt the lighthouse become even more vocal, if not yet more violent.

The ship arrives to collect to group on 14 February. )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You were situated on a barren island. Explicitly, to behold and to study.

Forgive me for not assuming murder.

We are a haphazard group, thrown together through life and death, many of us coming from similarly grim circumstances originally.

Murder is, I would assume, not the worst thing some of us have done.

Then you blame me, for not assuming the very worst of you and not treating you as animals. I see.

I don't. If I were in your place, I too might want to try to use a bunch of strangers I have no particular attachment to to do some of the work I need done, including the dirty one.

But that comes with its own risk. We don't know this world well, but you do not know us well either. These little demonstrations of yours would probably be more effective without all the riddles.

[But in essence.... you kind of did make that bed, sir, and you do get to lie in it.]

Besides, we do have a few kind people in our group. Kind people can make some... very puzzling decisions, at times, precisely because they are kind and wish not for others to suffer.

I urge you, sir, for once in our acquaintance, that your group should cease playing at martyrdom and take responsibility.

Nothing forces you to continue our partnership. You may all end it at your discretion.

I tire of being perpetually incriminated by those to whom I have dedicated a substantial amount of influence and resources to preserve.

We both know you are doing this because there is a vested interest for you to, sir. You told us so yourself.

Likewise, you are free to abandon us to our fate if we are so unmanageable. I wager even some in our group might not object.

I told you I do not blame you. That in your place, I might well have done exactly the same, and be faced with the same outcome. But let's not fool ourselves that either of our sides is acting with righteousness here, shall we? The only interest we have in common is, as far as I am aware, our continued survival. For now.

Let me be clear: you have killed people I knew. People who deserved better.

And my fault in this was apparently not to say, "Do not kill hapless innocents who cannot defend against you." Perhaps, moving forward, I must make sure to urge you that obvious instruction.

I understand that, and I am sorry it had to happen that way.

But we worked with what information we had, just like you. And there are very few among our number who would take a life lightly, even if they have done so before and would do it again.

Blame us if you need to. Be angry at us if it helps. You certainly have the right of it. I certainly won't say you can't.

But you certainly had fewer scruples when you tried to order one of our number to kill Lady Rigarda.

Because she did the unthinkable and the unjust: she and her master damned countless to the kind of ruin and devastation you are witnessing in Ellethia. Knowing what would come of it. Having heard and seen Ellethia's example.

So that justifies her murder in your eyes. That's fair enough. But why ask us to do it?

Because I was not physically present to make arrangements myself.

And there was truly no one else you could ask but a bunch of people with no stake in this game?

Pardon me if I find that a little hard to believe. There were hundreds of people in that city who would have done what you wanted for a few coins after the truth started coming out. There was no need to involve us in that, but you decided to anyway.

I had, at that point, exhausted the limits of my influence. Or do you believe it takes no amount of resource to accommodate you? To ensure your safety? To feed and clothe you? Secure your allies, your transportation, your identities? Do you believe I perpetually operate without arousing suspicion?

Of course not.

But that was a pretty big risk to take, and someone like you must have known that. You took it anyway, and again, in your place, I probably would have too.

It's just that it seems to perpetually puzzle you that what is the right and correct outcome to you might not appear this way for us. And also, if I may, you happened to choose one of the few people who would have moral objections to murder to carry out the task.

Forgive me that I do not always know the pedigree of every individual summoned freshly into my world.

You speak with the wisdom of hindsight. You have not taken a single action in this endeavour to improve this world. Everywhere you all go has erupted in hardship, blood or chaos.

And still that is a preferrable course to letting you rot. I pity you.

I pity myself more.

And why, pray tell, should I improve this world? Out of the goodness of my heart?

The fate that has made us collide was not a kind one, that is for sure. But I do believe that if at any point, abandoning us to rot becomes the best option, you will take it with no hesitation, and I respect that.

On this day? I am inclined to agree.

And once again, in your place, I would do exactly the same. So I do not begrudge you that one bit.

It really is a pity. Under other circumstances, we might even have gotten along. I am sure you play a mean game of chess, sir.

I wish I too could take this moment and its conversation lightly.

I do not take it lightly, sir, but I can see why my words might make it seem so. My apologies for being insensitive.

...thank you.

audio | username: raven master

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